Health

FINE GAEL MANIFESTO 2016 – HEALTH

Fine Gael inherited a badly organised and underfunded health service. While Fianna Fáil cut health spending during its final years in government, Fine Gael has used the economic recovery to start rebuilding our health services, with increases in funding for more doctors, nurses and other frontline staff, for additional services such as the extension ofn Breastcheck, for access to new treatments such as for cancer and Hepatitis C, and for free GP care for the under 6s and over 70s.

Our health services employ dedicated and highly skilled professionals, but need more investment and reform – more healthcare staff, more empowered local management, more investment in technology and a decisive shift towards care outside of hospitals and in the community. Fine Gael is committed to delivering a strong and efficient publicly funded health service. It is only a strong economy that will provide our country with the foundation needed for better health services.

Our plan for Universal Healthcare – for access to quality preventative, primary, curative, rehabilitative and end-of-life healthcare that is timely and affordable for everyone – will not be possible unless we keep the economic recovery going, and will be based on four key pillars.

In our Manifesto our commitments include:

Medical cards in the first year of new government for children who are covered by the Domiciliary Care Allowance.

Cutting the max annual payment for Drugs Payment Scheme from €1,728 to €950.